Mince parsley very fine, and shred carrots.Drizzle oil over mixture.Crush garlic and add to mixture along with salt and pepper.Stir well, coating carrots thoroughly. Sprinkle vinegar over mixture, toss, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Use the chicken broth instead of water to cook the rice. After the chicken has baked, skim off the fat from the juices left in the pan, and pour the flavorful juices over the rice at the table. Sprinkle a bit of lemon juice over the broccoli as it is steaming for a bright flavor.

Arrange leg quarters in roasting pan skin side up. Whisk together olive oil, crushed garlic, lemon juice, and thyme. Brush over chicken, and let marinate for 1 hour.Place in oven (no need to preheat) and set to 350 F. Roast for 50-60 minutes, checking to be sure thick part of thigh is done. Drain off pan juices, and skim off fat. Serve pan juices on the side.

Slice onions thin, and saute in oil. Add pork, saute 5-10 minutes. Add paprika, tomato paste, garlic, salt, and flour. PUt in slow cooker on low for 7 hours, adding liquid if necessary. Half an hour before serving, dice and saute green pepper and add to meat mixture.Mix a small amount of the cooking liquid with the sour cream, and stir back into cooker.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Slice oranges without peeling.Layer in bottom of baking dish, and sprinkle raisins on top.Halve and core pears. Place cut side down on oranges.Mix brown sugar and water, and pour over pears.Dot with butter, cover, and bake a 325 F for 45 minutes to an hour.

Fancy it up:Add 1/2 C white wine before you cover the baking dish. A flavor-enhancer that makes the dish stand out.

Saute bacon, bay leaf, and oil over medium heat until bacon is translucent.Stir in cabbage and onion and saute 5 minutes.Add allspice, paprika, brown sugar, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat and let vegetables steam gently in their own juices. Do not brown.Add vinegar, tomatoes, and chicken stock. Add sufficient water to cover the tops of the vegetables.

Simmer 30 minutes, until cabbage is soft. Puree 1 or 2 cups, and stir back into pan. Taste for balance, and serve hot.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Roasting a whole chicken can give you all kinds of bonus ingredients. In addition to the meat, there are bones and gravy. If you stuff it before you roast it, there's a side-dish of dressing. You can use the bones from the cooked chicken to make stock. In fact, if you roast them after the meat has been removed, the stock has a richer flavor. If I'm feeling especially frugal, I let the fat congeal and refrigerate it until I need to grease a casserole.

Simply Frugal Roast Chicken

Ingredient

4 servings

Chicken, whole

1

Giblets

Water

1 1/2 C

Bay leaf

1

Fat*

2 Tbsp

Onion, chopped

2 Tbsp

Bread*, diced

2 C

Celery

1/4 C

Basil

1/4 tsp

Thyme

1/4 tsp

Sage

1/2 tsp

Salt

Pepper

1/4 tsp

Flour

1 Tbsp

Milk

1 C

Wash chicken, and remove heart, liver, gizzard, and neck.Place neck, gizzard, and heart in water, along with bay leaf and half the onion. Simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and reserve stock.Chop heart, gizzard, and liver fine. Saute with remaining onion in fat for a few minutes.Combine with bread, celery, basil, thyme, sage, salt, and pepper.Pour stock over dressing to moisten.

Stuff interior of chicken just before the chicken is put in the oven. You can double the amount, and bake the remainder in a greased casserole dish.Place chicken in oven.Turn on oven and set to 350 ℉ Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.Pour off liquid, and allow fat to rise to the top. Skim and reserve fat.Add flour to pan drippings. Stir until flour is incorporated. Add milk for cream gravy, add the liquid from the roast for a thinner gravy. Stir over medium heat until gravy thickens.

After the meal, place carcass and bones in a plastic bag, and freeze until ready to make stock.

*Fat, Bread, Preheated OvenFat: the frugal cook uses bacon fat, chicken fat, vegetable oil, or butter.Bread: the frugal cook uses left over bread, bagels, or cornbread.Preheated oven: the frugal cook knows you do not need to preheat the oven if you are roasting meat.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Here's this week's best buys at my local Meijer. Even if you don't live near a Meijer store, these prices will reflect what prices are at the wholesale level. Your favorite store will probably be getting similar deals to pass on to you in the next few weeks. Ingredients in italics are more expensive than the rule of thumb I use for truly frugal cooking, 45¢ per serving.

Notice that ground turkey at $1.00 per pound is less expensive than chicken at 79¢ per pound. Also notice that pork sausage at $1.89 per pound is almost 50% more expensive per serving than pork loin at $1.79.

*Oatmeal on sale at $2.00 per 42 oz container is not as good as the usual price at SaveALot of $1.89.*Milk on sale at $2.50 per gallon is not as good as the sale price of $1.99 at Kroger. In my area, Kroger often has better sale prices on dairy items than either Meijer or SaveALot. Cheese is always better and eggs are often better.

$15 Per Week Per Person

In The Pantry
The recipes on this blog assume that you keep your pantry stocked with some basic ingredients and spices.
Here's the pantry list
and here's the herbs and spices list.
When pantry basics are on sale, you'll see them on the weekly shopping lists.
"Simple" recipes only use ingredients on these two lists.
"Extremely Frugal" recipes only use items on the pantry list, plus cinnamon, chili powder, and ginger.

No Coupons!!
I spend $15 a week per person with NO coupons. See this post for how you can do that too.